Soft bags, such as suitcases, tote bags, sports bags, and back-packs, of all sizes and types are presently manufactured throughout the world. The bags are transported from the manufacturer to their destination in a flatly packed or nested state so as to take up minimal shipping space because of the prohibitive costs involved in shipping stuffed bags. Freight charges from the point of manufacture to the destination of the bags are based on the amount of space that the bags occupy. For example, twelve back-packs shipped flat and nested will occupy the same amount of space (approximately one cubic foot) as one stuffed back-pack. As most retailers prefer to sell these bags fully stuffed for marketing purposes, the retailer arranges for the bags to be stuffed and repacked at a stuffing facility located near the final destination or in some instances at the point of sale. The bags are removed from their original shipping cartons at the stuffing facility and stuffing is done manually with such materials as crumpled paper, stiff cardboard pieces or inflated vinyl shapes. The original shipping cartons are disposed of and replaced by larger cartons that will hold the fully stuffed bags.
Stuffing takes time, space and additional personnel, which increases costs, causes inconvenience and sometimes delays delivery of the product to the point of sale. Additionally, the original shipping cartons are not reusable or recyclable and therefore must be discarded through cartage companies, which charge a fee for waste removal and disposal at dump sites. Moreover, additional costs are incurred for the new larger cartons and additional freight charges are incurred for shipping the new cartons containing the stuffed bags to the retailer after the stuffing process is completed.
The retailer also confronts storage problems as the stuffed bags take up much more storage space than unstuffed bags. Accordingly, the retailer is inclined to order limited quantities of stuffed bags because of storage restrictions, and thereby is subject to the risk of a rapidly depleting inventory and being unable to reorder in time to fill the demand.
As a result of the problems associated with manually stuffed bags, some retailers have opted to display their bags flat and include a picture of the bag as it appears stuffed. This method, however, is also costly and precludes the consumer from viewing the actual stuffed bag. Other retailers have contemplated having bags stuffed at the manufacturing point, but this is uneconomical because it requires more shipping space so that less bags can be shipped per container causing greatly increased shipping costs.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an insertable apparatus that permits a bag to be retained in a flattened state until expansion is desired and then allows the bag to be easily and quickly expanded by the retailer when the retailer desires to display the bag.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an insertable apparatus that is placed in the bag by the manufacturer or at the place of manufacture and is thereby more efficient and cost-effective since it allows the bag to be sent directly to the retailer, rather than a stuffing facility, thus precluding delays in delivery time.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an insertable apparatus that requires minimum material to manufacture and greatly reduces and conserves the usage of paper products or other stuffing materials, as well as the disposal of those materials.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an insertable apparatus that is placed in the bag during manufacture, sent to the retailer in the original shipping container, and thereby reduces freight charges and eliminates the need for an additional larger shipping container to house the stuffed bags.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an insertable apparatus for bags that requires a minimal amount of additional space in the shipping container and thereby enables retailers to order larger quantities and avoid inventory depletion.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an insertable apparatus that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and can be imprinted with advertising or other information directed to purchasers of the bag.
Additional objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description and the drawings.